Incomplete Narratives

Jacques M’Bondo, Gateshead

A gravestone in the Elizabethville Roman Catholic Cemetery in Birtley marks the resting place of Caporal Jacques M’Bondo of the Belgian army who died on 28th January 1918. Birtley was the site for a major munitions factory staffed by Belgians during the Great War, and operating, to an extent, under Belgian Military control.

Jacques was born in 1894 or 5 in what was then the Belgian Congo, now part of the Central African Republic. He left at a young age and may have spent time in England before reaching Belgium by 1911. At the invasion of Belgium by the German army in 1914 he enlisted in the Belgium forces. He was one of only 32 soldiers of colour in a Belgian army of over 100,000; enlisting before a colour bar was introduced.

Wounded in November 1914 Jacques was treated at Charing Cross hospital in London. He may have worked at a Munitions factory in Twickenham, but we do know he was transferred to Birtley on 2 nd January 1918. His stay was short as he soon thereafter contracted pneumonia and died. Find our more here.

John Roach, Newcastle

Born in 1806 in Monserrat, John Roach came to England as a freeman before the emancipation of enslaved people in the West Indies, as a servant to an officer. While the regiment was stationed at Newcastle, Mr Roach left and became ‘boots’ at the Queens Head Inn.

He later worked for The Royal Exchange Inn, where he saved enough money to open a successful coffee house on Grainger Street, named the The London Chop House. The coffee shop was popular and John Roach was said to be a well respected, courteous and hardworking businessman. Due to high demand, he moved the coffee shop to the larger Crown Hotel on Grey Street.

Alongside his work, he is said to have supported many charitable causes. He died in 1865 at 13 Grey Street. After his death, two stain glass window were installed at St Nicholas’ Church as a memorial to his life and contributions. He is buried in Jesmond Old Cemetary alongside his wife, Charlotte Green.

With thanks to Friends of Old Jesmond Cemetary for contributing information on John Roach

Elizabeth Hunter, Gatesehad

Elizabeth Hunter was born in Jamaica 1824, to Matthew Hunter, an enslaver and plantation owner, and Sarah Tharpe McFarlane, an enslaved woman. She first appears in Gateshead records in 1851 on the census working as laundress for William Atkinson, Rector of Gateshead Fell (St John’s Church Sheriff Hill). The Atkinson family had been involved in the sugar trade and enslavement since the early 1700s. 

The census in 1861 shows that Elizabeth married Joseph Nicholson Elder (1817-1895), a successful stonemason from Gateshead. They had four children, Thomas, Sarah, Isabella and Joseph with one of her sons becoming a marine engineer. They lived on 11 West Street in Gateshead, a relatively prosperous neighbourhood. Their building yard at 11 West Street was replaced by Gateshead Old Town Hall.

Elizabeth’s siblings also lived and worked in the Northeast; Mathew (butler) near Alnwick, George (shoemaker) and Sarah (cook) in Durham.

With thanks to Gateshead Library and Archives

Zaza Ben-I-Ford

Zaza Ben‑I‑Ford was an Algerian dancer from Biskra who travelled to Newcastle in 1929 to take part in the North East Coast Exhibition, a large industrial fair in Exhibition Park that promoted the region’s engineering and manufacturing industries but also included controversial “native villages” where people from Africa and Asia were displayed in ways that reflected colonial and racial hierarchies.

She was invited as part of a group of North African performers brought in to contribute to the exhibition’s international programme. During her stay in Newcastle she became ill, was treated at Walkergate Hospital, and died later that year at around 27 or 28 years old. She was buried in St. Andrew & Jesmond Cemetery, where her grave remains as one of the few surviving records of her life.

Jack London

Olympic sprinter, medical student and later musician John Edward London (1876- 1966), better known as Jack London, won both silver and bronze medals for Britain in the 1928 Olympic Games.

Born in Georgetown, British Guiana (now Guyana) on 13th January 1905, Jack was described as a superb athelete and was the first British sprinter to utilise starting blocks. His childhood home was at Lily Crescent inJesmond, Newcastle, where a plaque devoted to him now stands.  

Milton Marghai

Sir Milton Margai (1895–1964) was a Sierra Leonean physician and politician who studied medicine at King’s College, Durham in the Northeast of England, qualifying in 1926, and later undertook further training at the Liverpool School of Tropical Medicine.

After returning to Sierra Leone, he became the first professionally trained doctor from the Protectorate and worked extensively in rural areas, where he organised health education programmes for local tribal groups, particularly focusing on maternal health, sanitation, and community-based medical training.

He founded the Sierra Leone People’s Party in 1951, served as Chief Minister from 1954 to 1960, and became the country’s first Prime Minister at independence in 1961, remaining in office until his death in 1964.

Cassa Pancho